Leopards

Alan Neidle's article (Editorial Pages, Sept. 15), "The Leopards vs. the Baboons," was the perfect answer to the article on the same page, "SDI Is Not for Don Quixote" by Colin S. Gray. "The Leopards" was a humorous fable,and the "webbed canopy" a good analogy for the Strategic Defense Initiative. Neither offers protection, and they are both ridiculous. GERTRUDE KERN Los Angeles

N.Y., as in Not You bozos, too. . . . NBA powers, like Miami, have risen, and some, like Phoenix, have fallen, like the Suns since the Lakers' glory run started four seasons ago. And NBA teams have come out from under rocks, or wherever the Knicks went after 2001, their last finish over .500. Not that Spike Lee would show up here, as he did Sunday, when Pat Riley was the Prince of the City in the '90s and the Knicks contended for titles but neglected to win any. This team was only No. 6 in the East but at 53, Lee can't hold out for a title, having waited 38 years since the last one. So, welcome, Spike!

State biologists identified a big black cat killed by a sheriff's deputy as a leopard. James Dixon of the Missouri Department of Conservation said the cat was identified by the St. Louis Zoo. Newton County Sheriff's Corporal Donn Hall shot the animal when it charged him May 19. A woman had reported the cat was scratching at the door of her home near Neosho. Owners of big cats in Missouri are required to register their animals, but the sheriff's department says no one has reported a leopard missing.

Fashion is having a bit of an identity crisis this fall. The military-tough, almost street-warrior vibe is still going strong with cargo pants, utility jackets and tailored coats, while fur (both real and faux) is aggressively adorning almost everything from boots to anorak collars. But on the flip side of this heavy, edgy approach to fall dressing is the season's pulled-together 1950s aesthetic, inspired by the ladylike look of that decade. Call it a yearning for simpler times, when women wore skirts that hit below the knee and the only boxy thing was a pillbox hat. Fall collections from Louis Vuitton and Marc Jacobs look to this woman, with longer skirts that fit at the waist and fall full to the shin.

Snow leopards have attacked and killed five women near a wildlife sanctuary in northern Pakistan, police said. The killings have occurred about 40 miles north of the capital, Islamabad, local police official Ghulfam Hussain said. The body of the latest victim was found Friday near her village, Hussain said. Leopards have also reportedly killed four women from nearby villages. "The ...

Gigant the leopard did not change his spots willingly. The rare Russian Amur leopard, a 14-month-old male, was hauled growling and spitting from the Helsinki Zoo to the Exotic Feline Breeding Compound near Rosamond in the Antelope Valley. Since his arrival on Thursday, the leopard has been sulking, trying to remain out of sight in a small shelter. "He's pretty spooked," said Joseph Maynard, owner of the nonprofit, private zoo that specializes in breeding big cats for zoos.

Leopards are large, powerful predators. They live in more areas of the world than any other wild cat. They can weigh more than 150 pounds. Pretty impressive, but not when compared to other predators sharing the same territory. To deal with this, the leopard has come up with a smart way to keep its food safe. It will drag prey high into a tree.

A rare snow leopard cub at the Los Angeles Zoo has died of anemia caused by flea bites, zoo officials said Tuesday. They said the male cub, one of three born at the zoo about a year ago, showed none of the usual warning signs of infestation by the blood-sucking insects. Zoo veterinarian Dr. Ben Gonzales said the flea problem is "particularly bad" this summer in some parts of the park, but he and others expressed surprise that the young snow leopard reacted so suddenly.

Everyone knows a leopard can't change its spots, but at the Santa Barbara zoo they know how to multiply them. The zoo's resident leopard couple produced three kittens in April, and visitors can now see them tumble around their jungle-like enclosure, climbing tree trunks and wrestling with each other. The rare, endangered Amur leopard kittens aren't the only new arrivals at the Santa Barbara Zoological Gardens.

In the end, Hannibal did not administer the fatal bite to his mate's neck. And Jao Chu did not immediately kill their offspring, as is often the case. And so, early Tuesday, despite murderous tendencies in the captive species, two newborn clouded leopard cubs were found alive, well and squealing at the National Zoo's Conservation and Research Center in Front Royal, Va.

Dorsal fins flashed Sunday as a large school of leopard sharks prowled the sandy shoals a few feet off Mother's Beach, on a prime stretch of Marina del Rey coastline. The estimated 50 to 60 skittish and docile sharks, some up to 5 feet long, arrived about a month ago, Los Angeles County officials said. Since then, the chance to get a close look at the sleek creatures — usually swimming in single file or in large circles, their tapered tails swishing gracefully back and forth — has made the beach a magnet for photographers and nature lovers.

The great French critic André Bazin said of director Luchino Visconti that he filmed the Sicilian fishermen in "La Terra Trema" as if they were "tragic princes." In the 1963 epic "The Leopard," rapturously presented on a new Criterion Blu-ray, Visconti reverses the equation, pulling a family of 19th century aristocrats down to earth. Set in Sicily during the Risorgimento, the period that marked the end of Sicily's existence as an independent monarchy and the emergence of an Italian state, the movie exults in the last gasps of the nobility's opulence, even as it acknowledges and — ambivalently — endorses the necessity of its end. Perhaps the most overtly dialectical of Visconti's movies, "The Leopard" embodies the contradictions inherent in his identity.

In the end, Hannibal did not administer the fatal bite to his mate's neck. And Jao Chu did not immediately kill their offspring, as is often the case. And so, early Tuesday, despite murderous tendencies in the captive species, two newborn clouded leopard cubs were found alive, well and squealing at the National Zoo's Conservation and Research Center in Front Royal, Va.

Kevin Blau is chasing submerged shadows that I'm having trouble believing in. My young guide from Bike & Kayak Tours has, allegedly, spotted upward of five target animals cruising past. But I haven't seen jack for the queasy 30 minutes we've been out here in open kayaks, 75 yards offshore. Blau has instructed me to paddle very lightly to keep our presence discreet. It's a mid-June overcast morn, and we're getting rolled by 3-footers that break onto La Jolla Shores in San Diego.

State biologists identified a big black cat killed by a sheriff's deputy as a leopard. James Dixon of the Missouri Department of Conservation said the cat was identified by the St. Louis Zoo. Newton County Sheriff's Corporal Donn Hall shot the animal when it charged him May 19. A woman had reported the cat was scratching at the door of her home near Neosho. Owners of big cats in Missouri are required to register their animals, but the sheriff's department says no one has reported a leopard missing.

The leopards come at dusk, leaping into buses, creeping into orphanages, and dragging men, women and children from bungalows and shanties that have mushroomed at the edges of an unlikely wedge of green surrounded by one of the world's most populous cities. After years of relatively peaceful coexistence, big cats and humans are at war on the edges of this metropolis. Ten people were killed in June, and four leopards tranquilized and confined to metal cages.

Less than three weeks after an escaped tiger killed a teenager at the San Francisco Zoo, two new incidents have surfaced that are bringing fresh attention to the facility's handling of its exhibits. Zoo officials said Friday that a nearly 100-pound snow leopard ripped a small opening in its wire mesh cage -- which was inside a bigger secured enclosure -- Thursday afternoon and got part of its head and paw through the gash.

Apple Inc. sold more than 2 million copies of its Leopard software in the first weekend on sale, outpacing early orders for the prior version of its Macintosh computer operating system. Leopard, released Oct. 26, includes features for organizing and sharing files and software that lets Mac users run Microsoft Corp.'s rival Windows operating system. Leopard is $129 for a single copy and $199 for a family pack with five licenses.